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Rehandled Hattori KD's

There was more interest in the knives than in the acid etch, the topic of an earlier post. So here are pics of my humble collection, in addition to the two santokus in my previous post, of what seems to be the most elusive semi-custom knife in the world. Handles by Daniel O'Malley, who also rounded the spine and did a great job of recreating the bottle-like profile of the scales, which are afzalia burl and spalted maple (240's), and birch burl and she-oak burl (210 and petty). The only one in active use is the re-etched santoku, in rotation with a 180 western Shigefusa and a 210 DT ITK.

Are they good performers? My judgement is not up to that of our senior members, but I can tell you that it has been sharpened only once (after the re-etch) and since then steeled on a Dickron polished rod after/before most uses, and out-cuts everything I own, including the Shig and a white steel Carter custom and many others. My guess is that Tanakas are their rival, and you can still get those from The Best Things and JCK when they're in stock. BTW, I was told that Tanaka's family will go on manufacturing his own powdered metallurgy version (R2?) of these high-end knives.

WOW, very very beautiful, Jonathan! I must say that seeing these is making me entertain the thought of rehandling mine, if I find someone in Europe who can do a good job. But my mind is not made up, yet!

BTW, thank you very much for the pictures you sent... I took the liberty of overalpping the two Santoku profiles in Photoshop to see how much they differ, and I thought people might be interested in seeing the result - I hope you do not mind:Hi Res

Fascinating! A little more upsweep to one, doubt if it was intentional. I noticed that the bolster on one is a bit more rounded, the other more angular. Are we sure it's only the old man making them???

WOW, very very beautiful, Jonathan! I must say that seeing these is making me entertain the thought of rehandling mine, if I find someone in Europe who can do a good job. But my mind is not made up, yet!

BTW, thank you very much for the pictures you sent... I took the liberty of overalpping the two Santoku profiles in Photoshop to see how much they differ, and I thought people might be interested in seeing the result - I hope you do not mind:Hi Res